r/nbdhe

Its already such a dominating feeling leaving that exam, theres nothing really that can prepare you for it. I studied for hours, weeks, and still I left there quite sad. At first, I thought it went okay.. then I googled many questions and realized I got the answers wrong! I was so annoyed with how they sort of confuse you... I had been told it wasnt the case. But, I beg to differ. Anyway, to keep some sanity forget googling stuff.. you cant do much now and the stress does not need to add up!

For those who took the NBDHE, do you have any tips? Or was there anything you wished you studied that showed up on your exam that you weren’t expecting?

I need some words of encouragement right now. I’m starting to feel anxious about the exam and doubting my knowledge. I’ve been reading my DHS book, quizzing myself with Andy’s questions, and reviewing some of Darby’s questions as well. I’m afraid that once I’m in the exam, I’ll panic and forget how to critically think through the questions.

Background: never did the best in school, definitely never took any class seriously, thus leading me to get deferred for a year, was a risk of being dropped out the program many times, sacrificed my safety to find patients, but in the end, I walked out with a degree in hand. Now to tackle the boards.

I didn’t take my boards right away after graduating last May, due to a well deserved vacation followed by seasonal depression. I always told myself that I wanted to take my boards/ start working the September- November post graduation, but I am the biggest procrastinator who has symptoms that align with ADHD, therefore I either will hyperfocus on something for a while, and then drop it, moving on to the next, or struggle with bringing myself to do something that needs to get done willingly, unless pressure/ deadlines/ consequences are looming near.

The year of 2026 was my deadline because in a perfect world, I would’ve been anticipating earning my bachelors this fall. As I near the age of 25, time definitely felt like it was ticking— and fast. I decided to quit my job in January and focus on finally obtaining my license. I first had to take my ADEX exam, which I did in February, (thank you quizlet! Trust when they say everything you need to know for the exam is on quizlet, there is nothing to get nervous about, sincerely, someone who was nervous.) and once I passed I signed up for the boards to take in April.

The plan was to spend every week studying a subject in school (ex 1 week on radiology, 1 week on path, etc.) until I went through all subjects, then purchasing a study tool to further my knowledge.

That didn’t happen.

So I came to Reddit to get opinions on buying study resources. When I was in school, the big 2 were Andy and student rdh. Everyone either used one or the other. After spending time on Reddit, I’ve been hearing about this booster thing and how it mimicked the exam to a tea, and even had questions on booster show up on the exam. It sounded like a new emerging resource to me, and was reluctant to give it a chance. So I bought booster (on sale) and Andy. There was 8 weeks to my exam at this point The plan was to study 1 week Andy, 1 week booster, 1 week Andy, 1 week booster, and then supplemental quizlets and YT videos on things I didn’t understand leading up to exam day.

That didn’t happen either.

Keep in mind I quit my job so I had a lot of free time, PLUS an easily distracted mind. The result? Spending more time sleeping during the day, going to the gym at wee hours of the night, as well as picking up hobbies I haven’t touched in years like crotchet, and new ones like anime. Luckily Lent came around which eliminated some major distractions, (but I found other things to occupy myself with) so I could somewhat turn my attention to studying.

For 1 week, I studied Booster. At the end of the week, I felt like switching over to Andy would hinder my progress, so I extended my studies to focus on booster for an additional week. This was the breakdown (I mainly used the app version): first I created a 100q exam to see where I stood with my own knowledge, no studying, since this supposedly mimicked the boards, and I failed. Then I went to each subject and answered all the questions the same way, only with my acquired knowledge. I had about a 50% overall. Next, I reset everything and answered the questions again, this time, writing down the key words associated with the answers, as well as the incorrect answers and their explanations to turn into quizlets. I did the same for the videos. As I approached the 2 week mark of using booster, I was confused because everyone kept mentioning case studies mimicking the boards but the app had no case studies. On a whim, I logged in on the website, to find more information such as the community questions, case studies, and study sheets, more information I had to answer on my own knowledge, then convert into quizlets. By the time I was done, I went through all the quizlets for an hour to 2 a day. I had spent about 8 hrs a day studying the past 2 weeks, from morning to evening. I also retain more information at night, so I had some 12-3am sessions, with plans of having every Friday be a 24 hour study session (that never happened). I also downloaded mastery hygiene app and did their 10 free questions a day. The plan was to utilize my last week and sign up for the 3 day free trial to go through all the questions and add the questions I struggled with to a quizlet (that plan never came to pass). By this point I had memorized a good 800/850 booster questions and the answer choices. Now it was time to move on the Andy for the next 2 weeks.

Yeah, no.

I ended up hanging with a friend one day, and never went back to studying (except the 10 mastery questions a day, to keep my streak going). Just sitting in the house doing everything but that for 2 1/2 weeks. At this point I had a week and a half till my boards. Once that pressure loomed on me, my brain finally decided to lock in.

Clearly I study for memorization more than I do for understanding, and that’s all I’ve ever done as my study method, even the rare times I did study in school. Coupled with the fact that it had been more than a year post grad and I haven’t had to test/ study in a way like it was in school, I felt overwhelmed. 2 of my 8 week study plan actually went to studying, leaving close to 3 weeks of dilly dallying, I hadn’t even touched Andy at this point, I had forgotten everything I memorized on booster, I still had a hard time on radiology landmarks, dental anatomy, and a bit of microbiology.

I spent 3 days on Andy (bought the lowest tier and only used the app. The free one that comes with the tier in the AppStore, not the $20 one), doing the same process of going through each subject (except for the suffix and such because at that point I knew what I knew and I didn’t what I didn’t in terms of context clues) and then going through them again to turn into quizlets. I found that Andy’s information was lacking, and more focused on supplemental information. I was glad at that point I chose to study with booster first because I was surely disappointed. The rationals didn’t explain anything, it just said “ b/c/d is not the answer. This is incorrect! A is the answer! Correct!” Compared to booster, with explained why answer choices were incorrect and going into detail as to why an answer was correct. I said to myself, “this can’t be the same Andy everyone swore by?!”

I tried using other boards quizlets but the information wasn’t sticking to me. I also watched more videos on radiology landmarks during this time. The final 4 days of my exam prep was spent on going back and refreshing my brain with my booster quizlets, using a panoramic landmark print out to go over and focused more on the subjects I still couldn’t grasp. At this point, I was averaging about 5-6 hours a day on studying. I originally never planned on studying the night before the exam. In my 8 week plan, the last day, as advised by others, were to truly rest and take my mind off things.

I studied the night before the exam.

Not only that, but I studied well into 2 am the day of my exam, knowing I had to be up at 6 am. Again, just trying retain anything I can, capitalizing off of my ability to retain information in the midnight hours.

Day of my exam:

I was SO NERVOUS when I sat down on that chair. I prayed before I pressed start, prayed after reading the first question, and told God, “yk what? Nvm.” The first question threw me off so bad I was stunned. I’m being so serious when I say I guessed the first 10 questions, I was shaking every time I moved the mouse, and truly wanted to just get up and walk out of the exam right then and there. I was like “yk what, I need to go back home and study some more bcuz I clearly wasn’t ready for this.” But I was like, “yk what? I prayed on this, I spent 3 years in school for this, I studied all that I could for this, I quit my crappy job for this, I spent 653 DOLLARS FOR THIS, I can’t let my sacrifices go in vain.” I moved on to question 11.

After my first 100 questions, I went back to review them as I normally do with any exam I’ve ever taken, but by question 40 something, I was over it, and just said “screw it” im not going back, and just moved on to the next section.

My first 100 questions were heavy on radiology (density, collimator stuff) and biology, the 2 subjects I still couldn’t fully grasp while studying, with a sprinkle of pharm&path. The 80 questions afterwards were easier than the first half, focusing more emphasis on path&pharm, along with biology& radiology (not as heavy). I remember saying “phew” out loud and chuckling in relief to every easy question I had, and holding my breath and tensing up at every hard question I encountered. The community questions were easy, as I never struggled with that subject. They asked such as types of study conducted and graph distribution. The first 75 case studies were straightforward and eerily easy. I had only flagged about 5-9 questions only because it felt too easy to the point where I hadn’t flagged anything. It was definitely a complete breath of fresh air compared to the first half. The second 75qs were a little harder, but not too shabby, got my first stage and grade q in this section, I think I got 1-2 max. This half was mostly identifying lesions and radiographic details the arrow pointed too.

I never initially planned on taking any breaks, I just wanted to run through everything in one go. However, I drank a lot of water before the start of my exam, so I used all breaks allotted to drink more water and pee, as well as going into the hallway to look up the answers to the questions I remembered had stumped me on, and squeezing in more last minute study information.

I kept fidgeting around in the chair because my back was hurting and was tired of sitting down. I kept shifting in my seat every 10 mins or so.

Listen to the people when they say get a good nights rest.

I fell asleep at some point during the last 75 questions of my exam. I was tired physically, and bored of the exam asking me questions over and over. This was the longest exam of my life, and I was never prepared for a test this lengthy in one sitting before. I kept dozing off every so often omggg. I was so mentally check out, I remember thinking, “I wonder what the proctors are thinking rn. They’re probably like this girl is gonna be back here again soon.” Also for some awful reason I came down with a sore throat during the last 20 questions. I finished my exam around 2-3pm. After my exam, I treated myself to a cone and went home, as my sore throat worsened. Yes I looked up questions I remembered, and yes the google results basically told me the choice I chose was wrong. Despite that, I felt good about my exam, that it almost felt wrong to feel good. I remember reading ppl on the sub who flagged 100qs worried they would fail, and passed. Those who flagged 75qs worried they would fail and passed. And here I sat with 55-60 unsure questions. Ik the test wasn’t determined by answering 75% or more correct overall, but even inputting the unsure qs numbers i had +/- 10, I still equated to a passing score overall.

9 business days later?

I prayed as I logged into the ADA site, super nervous as I couldn’t help myself, after receiving the email. I closed my eyes once I scrolled to the scores results. Then I opened it.

I passed. First try. Thank God, because I truly couldn’t have don’t it on my own. At the same time, this felt surreal. I questioned how I could’ve passed. How it was possible. I took a screen shot and spent various times during the day referring back to that picture where it read the word PASS. It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel true. Again, I checked to make sure that the pass was made up in my head and the real words written were FAIL. I even kept doing the mastery questions after passing, and up to a week after getting my license before finally deleting the app (they changed the layout and stopped displaying the streaks which is what kept me going). I had all these plans of what I was going to do once I passed, that I ultimately did nothing. All the sacrifices and time spent for this one moment, and I decided not to celebrate as initially planned. Instead, a weight felt lifted off my shoulders, as I immediately applied for my license, and became registered in 3 days. Now I face my next hurdle, of working my first shift after a year of not seeing patients, worried I might fail or get dismissed. But ik that’ll pass, and my next hurdle will be how long I can last before I break, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Long story short, my methods aren’t the usual, but it goes to show u that my path wasn’t as perfect as a cookie cutter, and someone may have a smaller/ bigger circumstance than me. I know you got this in the bag, because I didn’t think I could do it, yet came out and survived. Good luck this boards season to the future graduates, and anyone going through it in hygiene school, just know I was in your shoes and despite the hurdles I thought would knock me down, I got back up and made it through the finish line. I know I wasn’t in first place, but I reached it at my own pace, and what matters is that I crossed through. U got this!!!!!!💗💗💗💗💗

TLDR: procrastinated/ fell into a depression after graduating to take my boards, and once I finally got around to studying, only spent a strong 2 1/2 weeks studying because I get distracted easily, yet miraculously passed. My story isn’t the idealistic “graduate->boards ->work in the span of 3 months” post hygiene school. since my path wasn’t typical, I believe that anyone who is struggling can do it.

i take my nbdhe next week and used student rdh but i feel like i know nothing should i buy nbdhe booster ?? did it help u guys or the free questions on it are enough

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share that I recently passed all my boards and NBDHE and just applied for my license. Fingers crossed my license is approved soon! If anyone has any questions about anything in the process or the board exam, license application for MA, I'm more than willing to help.

Hi everyone, my exam retake is tomorrow and I'm trying to practice writing information down for my cheat sheet, and for some reason I'm struggling trying to remember the eruption dates. Can anyone help me out, please and thank you.
Also I'm very nervous and hope I can pass this second time.

does anyone have a comprehensive study guides for the nbdhe to go over everything quickly or quizlets that are similliar to boards

Hi there, I have a question and am also looking for reassurance. Question is, is there actually fill in the blank questions on the OSCE? I’m taking it next week and do not feel prepared at all. I have all the Quizlets everyone recommends but for some reason feel like that’s not enough. I’m really nervous for the pharm questions. I passed pharm but feel like I remember nothing. Any tips would be helpful!

I’m taking my exam on Wednesday! Today was my last day of studying and I feel very prepared. Tomorrow I’m getting a massage and relaxing.

I just took my boards yesterday on 4/29. The set up was exactly like BoosterPrep which was calming. I have 64ish days left. If anyone is interested I’m selling my login for $80.

It’s now been 16 days since I’ve applied. It still says they’re waiting on board results and letter of good standing. Has anyone else’s application taken this long?!